[Scribus] Need help with DTP under Linux

[Jelle de Jong]

Hello,

This is my first email on this mailing list, so welcome everyone and
keep up the good work.

This is the problem: I want to design some documents like flyers,
business cards, etcetera. I  want to do this with open source tools
under Linux. I want to be able to deliver my files directly to the press
without convert special things.

I am very familiar with The GIMP. So I started to make my
business-cards. Maybe I made my first mistake here, I don't know yet!

I took a high resolution design because I wanted to use it for more
things. (2400x2400)

The business-card has a final size of 55x85mm and has colours to the
edge. So I put 1mm on every size so the total size will be 57x87mm.

I exported my file to Tiff without compression.

I use to ImageMagick tools from here.

convert "Image - Front - RGB.tiff" -colorspace CMYK "Image - Front -
CMYK.tiff"

identify -verbose "Image- Front - CMYK.tiff" > "Identify - Front - CMYK.txt"

I converted my file to CMYK and did a check, good colour profile. 3
colors White for the background of the Tiff, Black and Aqua for text and
lines.

Know some issues here: Why do they what 300 dpi files? 300 dpi means 300
dots of inkt per inch? So if want 57x87mm file I must have a resolution
of = ((5.7/2.54)x300)=673 ((8.7/2.54)x300)=1028 == 673x1028 at 300 dpi
will result in a image of 57x87mm.

convert "Image - Front - RGB.tiff" -colorspace CMYK -geometry 1028x673
-density 300x300 "Image - Front - Geometry - Density - CMYK.tiff"

identify -verbose "PowerCraft Technology - Visitekaartje v1.6 - Front -
Geometry - Density - CMYK.tiff" > "Identify - Front - Geometry - Density
- CMYK.txt"

Now the resolution and and color profile are good. But the Geometry
option does a anti aliasing effect and turns my card in a full > 500
color file.

I can correct this by using this command:

convert "PowerCraft Technology - Visitekaartje v1.6 - Back - RGB.tiff"
-font Courier -colorspace CMYK -sample 1028x673 -density 300x300 "Image
- Back - Sample - Density - CMYK.tiff"

identify -verbose "Image - Back - Sample - Density - CMYK.tiff" >
"Identify - Back - Sample - Density - CMYK.txt"

The resulting file I can send to my printer (HP Color LaserJet 8500DN)

But the quality of a 300 dpi image sucks on my printer if I sent the
converted CMYK file to my printer it looks fine.

Why do they use such low resolutions?

And here I think I made a mistake by using image based text made with
The GIMP?

What are the specifications of file's I can send to the press, end how
can I create files according to these specifications

I send the original RGB TIFF file and all converted TIFF CMYK images to
a press but could not use them. They went creating new files. And wanted
to now every color and text type and text size of every word.

Now I can pay them. And I still don't now how to create a good file that
I can sent to the press.

What am I doing wrong here? Can't I bitmap based things in DTP should I
only use vector based elements?

I am feeling totally screwed here, please help me?